The Catalans can make it five trophies in a year on Sunday if they beat River Plate, eclipsing the Blancos' haul from 2014 and piling more gloom on their fiercest Rivals
This was supposed to be Real Madrid's year. Los Blancos closed out 2014 with a record 22 wins in a row and a club-best four trophies, while Barcelona began 2015 playing poorly and with Luis Enrique and Lionel Messi at loggerheads. How times have changed.
On Sunday, Barca can claim their fifth piece of silverware in the calendar year as they look to add the Club World Cup to the treble and Uefa Super Cup they won earlier in 2015. And barring a big surprise, the Blaugrana will eclipse the four titles won by Madrid in 2014.
For Barca, it is an excellent end to another memorable 12 months. For Madrid, more misery in a year they will want to forget. Back in January and even later, however, such a scenario seemed unlikely.
Real led La Liga at the beginning of March, but were blighted by a severe injury crisis and their form had already hit the rocks in February as they lost 4-0 away to city rivals Atletico. There was also controversy as Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 30th birthday with a big bash that same night.
And even though they beat Atleti to make the semi-finals of the Champions League, Ancelotti's men ultimately lost out to Juventus in the semi-finals and were unable to catch Barca in La Liga.
So Madrid ended up with nothing and Ancelotti was dismissed in the summer by president Florentino Perez. It wasn't a popular decision, but failure to win a single trophy at the business end of a season is seldom good enough for any coach at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Barca, in the meantime, won it all. Luis Enrique started the year by leaving Messi on the bench at Real Sociedad and that fallout seemed set to spell the end for the Asturian coach. But far from it: the two sorted out their differences, Barca started winning and the team never looked back.
Messi returned to the right, Luis Suarez started as a central striker and everything clicked. Now nobody talked about the BBC - (Karim) Benzema, (Gareth) Bale and Cristiano. Instead, the new acronym in vogue in trident terms was MSN: Messi, Neymar, Suarez.
Barca's three South American forwards have fired the club to the top of the Primera Division in 2015-16, while the 6-1 win over Roma recently was so impressive that many asked if anyone - even Bayern Munich - would have a chance of stopping Luis Enrique's side from becoming the first team to claim back-to-back Champions League titles since the competition changed format in 1992-93.
And all of that in a year which had started amid tension, with Barca banned from registering new players due to sactions from Fifa for irregularities in the signing of youngsters. With La Masia also seemingly suffering and some indifferent displays at the back end of 2014, there really were not too many signs of optimism for fans of the Catalan club.
Some 12 months on, however, and Barca are flying. After a blip under Gerardo Martino when they failed to win a major trophy at the end of the 2013-14 season, the Blaugrana went on to dominate once again last term and after becoming the first club to claim the treble on two separate occasions with their triumphs in La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in 2014-15, they can now win the Club World Cup for an unprecendented third time.
A little less than three hours after the Catalans' game against River concludes on Sunday, Madrid are in action at home to Rayo Vallecano in a fixture they will be expected to win comfortably. Even if they do, however, they will still be two points behind Barca having played one more match.
Real are also out of the Copa del Rey after they fielded the ineligible Deni Cheryshev in their game against Cadiz recently and will need dramatic improvement if they are to have any chance of winning the Champions League.
Coach Rafa Benitez is under pressure, meanwhile, with many of the squad still wishing they were working with Ancelotti and results poor under the former Liverpool manager so far. With 30 points from 15 games, this season represents the club's worst start in La Liga since 2008-09.
Constant calls for Zinedine Zidane to take over or even a return for Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese was sacked on Thursday haven't helped the ambience at Real either as Madrid end 2015 in chaos - and without a trophy.
Barca, meanwhile, march on and after a brief Real revival in 2014, the Blaugrana are set to extend their era of dominance in Spain, Europe and the world - starting on Sunday.
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